A 10-minute Easter treat -- good for Easter baskets or just a surprise for loved ones

Milk Chocolate Egg Nests

Including taking photos, these took me 10 minutes to make, start to finish. Many years ago, I made all of the treats for my kids' Easter baskets. I made molded chocolate bunnies, marshmallow Peeps, egg-shaped decorated sugar cookies, mini animal graham crackers, mini chocolate rabbits, fudge eggs, and these egg nests.

Russell Stover's sells a single coconut nest for about 33 to 39 cents. I don't think they even have the "eggs" in them any longer, just the coconut and chocolate. I made these for about 14 cents each.

The melting chocolate I bought on markdown, last spring, for $1.89/lb. You could also use chocolate chips (with about a teaspoon of shortening or coconut oil added to the melting), or a regular Hershey bar (again with a small amount of shortening for it to melt better), or you can use white "chocolate." With the white chocolate and milk chocolate bar, like Hershey's, you will want to melt slowly (a double-boiler, or if in the microwave, in short bursts of time -- 20 seconds -- with vigorous stirring in between. The high sugar content of both of those can scorch). Anyway, my price may be met using chocolate chips, if unlike me you do not happen to have coating chocolate in the pantry ;) My coconut was simply a bag of WinCo coconut that I purchased a year ago, and the jelly beans I bought for Easter egg hunts. But in calculating my cost per item, I included the cost of chocolate, coconut, and jelly beans.

Here is how easy they are:

I used about 4 ounces of chocolate, melted in the microwave according to package directions, stirring often between bursts of microwaving.

After melted, I stirred in 1/2 cup of coconut flakes.

I scooped the chocolate/coconut mixture into mounds on a sheet of waxed paper.

Using the back of the spoon that I stirred with, I formed the nest shape, making an indentation for the eggs.

I placed 3 jelly beans into each nest, pressing in slightly. Then I just let them sit and firm up on the counter. If I was in a hurry I might have put them in the fridge at this point.

So, this batch with 4 oz of chocolate and half-cup of coconut made 5  1/2 nests.If I had not been in such a hurry, I could have taken more time to divide the chocolate evenly, and made exactly 5. But this way, I get a little treat later today! You know, "quality control" sampling is allowed, and has zero calories.

I shared this idea because of all of the Easter treats that I have made over the years, these are one of the very easiest.